The present invention relates to an ink bag used in an ink jet printer, a facsimile machine, a copying machine or the like which comprises a mechanism for ejecting an ink droplet from a nozzle to print on a recording medium, and also relates to apparatuses incorporating such an ink bag.
As an ink bag used in such a printer, there has been known one which employs a flexible casing which is deformable in accordance with consumption of ink therein, and provided with an identification mark on the outer surface thereof. Attribute data such as the kind, color, manufactured date etc. of the ink is indicated by the identification mark. The attribute data of the ink is read from the identification mark by a reading unit provided in the printer in a state where the ink bag is attached to the printer so that the printing operation of the printer is controlled based on the data thus read.
However, in the related ink bag, the attribute data of the ink is unilaterally read from the identification mark to control the printing operation, whilst a consumed amount of the ink within the ink bag is managed by a control unit in the printer. When the ink bag is mounted on the printer, the data, which includes the consumed amount of the ink within the ink bag, stored in the control unit is cleared, then new data is read from the identification mark, and the management of the consumed amount of the ink is newly started. Thus, in the case where an ink bag is detached from the printer on the way of using the ink in a state that the consumed ink amount data is left in the printer, the consumed ink amount data no longer can be managed continuously even though the same ink bag is again mounted on the printer. Further, since a bar code whose data capacity is small is typically used as the identification mark, sufficient management data can not be treated.